It's been another busy weekend at Save the Poles expedition headquarters, now based in Maria's basement in Boulder, Colorado. Luckily, the expedition team (me) managed to sneak out the the Teva Mountain Games in Vail for some fun, sun and renewable energy.

In Teva's geartown, I met up with the Goal0 crew and got a chance to see some of their new products and visit with the entire team. While at dinner with Robert, Joe, Chris, Norm, Maria and the Sender Film guys, we talked about the our need to use Renewable energy right now. We were also regaled with Chris Meek's late night encounter with a mountain lion. But that's a story for another time.

While I always miss the lakes and cool of northern Minnesota, Boulder's proximity to mountains, mountain culture and great training opportunities are hard to beat. Last week, I got an email from a product manager at Sierra Designs, 'Do you want to go up to St. Mary's Glacier and test gear?' Uh... YES! Mountain biking, road biking, trail running, hiking and the occasional 14er are all beneficial in training for Everest right now. Trying to snap a couple of tele turns on mushy dirty snow in June, well, let's just say it's good that no pictures were published.

The dust here in STP's own gear 'town' is finally settling. I still need to whip out the Seventh Generation detergent and wash bivy bags from the North Pole (I know gross, right). New gear seems to still be trickling in as well. I'm exited to be testing Goal0's Sherpa 50 and Elite solar panel. I've also got a few items coming in from Sierra Designs.

As always, there are million details to attend to. Fundraising is still a major issue (and stress) and I'm sending out sponsorship proposals with feverish intensity. Old Spice, it turns out, is not interested in sponsoring polar or mountaineering adventures. Oh well.

My good friend from Scarpa, Paul Nanawa, and I are also gearing up for a Rainier ascent next week. It should be a fun climb although news of an avalanche (leaving one climber still missions and injuring several others) this past weekend sent us both scrambling for snow reports and updated weather conditions. The avalanche is a somber, but important, reminder of the dangers and need for caution while mountaineering.

There are some other fun events on the horizon as well as a trip to Minnesota. I'm excited to get back in the rhythm of regular updates. I'll be in Seattle presenting at Bing, REI and Atlas/Madshus next week. So please stay tuned!

Picture:Goal0's Extreme 30M solar panel soaking up the rays at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. Very cool.

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by Bing with major support from Terramar, Goal0, Atlas and Sierra Designs.